Conference moira::parenting

    My 5 year old is strange about his clothing.  He does not like tight
    fitting cuffs on his sleeves, and does not like collars.  Kind of
    limits my shopping to BIG sweatshirts....
    
    -sandy
    
    

    Both my nephews were obsessed with tags in clothing and with strings
    hanging from things.  
    
    From the time they were 2, they both insisted that all their tags were 
    removed from their clothes, especially from shirts.  It wasn't just
    tags that were sticking them -- the tags had to be cut before the
    clothes went on.  Brian outgrew this shortly after he turned 3.  The jury 
    is still out on Neil (he's 2 1/2).  [This was sad for me when even the
    "hand-made by Tracy" tags had to be cut out of their sweaters :-).]
    
    They also cannot leave a string hanging from anything.  If it's a loose
    thread somewhere, they'll pick it off and throw it away.  If it's a
    string attached to clothing, furniture, bedspreads, etc., it must be
    cut off.
    
    I thought it was funny that they both went through this because they
    seem like odd habits to me.  
    
                                                  Tracy
    

    My son is 4(Dec) and he must have all his toys and stuffed animals in
    line.  He will change them to rows if there are too many to do one
    line.  He has done this ever since he has been able to move around.  He
    will park his cars before dinner and if you try to move them he has a
    fit.
    
    Virginia
    

re .3:
    Oh, Virginia, please, please can you send your son over to give my sons
    lessons?!!  I don't care where you live - I will pay plane fare!
    Our house is typically wall-to-wall Duplos...

    :-)

	cheryl

    My son Daniel, who turns five next week, will only wear his 
    Batman underpants backwards, so he can see the pictures better.
    All other styles (plain, Ninja Turtle, etc) are worn in the
    normal manner. 
    
    Lucy

    
    
    	Ok, you can have him for a bit.
    
    
    Ty loves those Duplo building blocks.  He has some at school and when
    it's time for clean-up, the teacher says it take him the longest time
    to put them away.  He stacks them in size and color order and if any of
    the other kids try to help he has a fit.
    
    This morning he started working out with me.  When the work out show
    went to a comercial, I sat down for a second and he started yelling at
    me to "Keep it going now, all through the break!"  He sounded just like
    the guy on TV.
    
    Virginia

    Ryan is 4. Will only wear sweat pants - no dungarees (maybe when he's
    8, he tells me), no corduroys, nothing with zippers. Also, no
    sweaters - only sweatshirts - no, striped shirts, no turtlenecks..
    no buttondown shirts.  People give me the most lovely clothes and he
    just looks at them and says nope.!!!
    

    
    
    Your getting off easy.  My son would only wear shorts up untill a few
    weeks ago.  I couldn't figure out why but I told him it was too cold
    for shorts and he would get sick and couldn't go to school.  He quickly
    asked to wear pants but wanted to wear his shorts over them.  Maybe he
    is watching MTV behind my back.
    
    Virginia\

  At 3, Christopher is doing the same kind of stuff.  Recently, he realized
that there are spaces between the buttons on his shirts (little flannel shirts 
are so cute). He thinks the spaces are rips and refuses to wear any kind of 
button-up shirt.  It's tough to reason with a three year old.

          Laura

    My daughter won't wear a bib unless it is clean. Even a stain or a
    small speck is too much.
    
    But she doesn't mind wearing her favorite clothes even if they are
    filthy.  She snatches them out of the landry basket and puts them on
    herself.
    
    L
    

    This is sooooo funny!  My daughter has always been a fashion consultant
    from the get go.  I remember when she was about 12 mos (she's now 5
    1/2) I brought her shopping with me and was looking through some
    clothes for her.  I would ask her each time if she would like the
    outfit and would shake her head no every time.  Then I dediced to go to
    the "expensive" clothes.  She loved them all, of course!!  Even now she
    insists that she CANNOT leave the house unless she is in a dress, party
    socks, and party shoes!!  People always ask her why she is so dressed
    up!  But she loves to be a little girl!
    
    She is very particular about rules and processes.  I always put her
    shoes and socks on one at a time (i.e. one sock then a shoe, then
    proceed to the next foot).  Well, one time I did one sock then one
    sock.  I thought the child was going to have a heart attack!!  She
    couldn't have been more than a year old.  She said "WRONG, WRONG".  I
    didn't understand until I took the other sock off and put the first she
    on.  Then she was fine.  Can you believe it?  
    
    Even to this day Brittani is still the same way.  She always wants to
    know the rules and is very disappointed when mom, dad, or brother go
    out of the process sequence.  Hmmmm, does this signify that she cannot
    deal with change.............
    
    Lisa                     
    

    RE:  .11
    
    When_Harry_Met_Sally?
    
    If this doesn't make sense, see the movie.  It's a hoot and you'll
    recognize the Sally character.
    
    :-)
    
    L
    

    
    
    I wasn't sure what "behavior" topic to put this in, as none really 
    applied to my daughter, but I would like to explain what she is doing 
    to see if anyone else out there has had similar experiences.

    My daughter, who is just about 17 months either pulls her hair or hits 
    herself in the head when we tell her "no" if she is doing something bad 
    which is usually followed by her rubbing her face.  Everytime Alyssa would 
    pull our hair or slap us we would say "no, nice mumma" or "nice daddy" and 
    take her hand and rub our faces.  So, when we say no to her she pulls her 
    own hair (pretty hard I must add) or slap her head then when we say to her 
    "don't pull your hair" she rubs her face (as to say nice Alyssa).  Other
    times that we tell her "no" she hits us (pretty hard I must add).

I'm sure this is normal for all kids this age, but have any of you 
experienced this?

    My son does something similar.  He is 18 months old.  When we tell
    him "no", he will bang his head on something.  The wall, the floor,
    our legs, etc.!  Once, when going for a walk, we had to tell him "no"
    for something and he squatted down and banged his head on the sidewalk
    - pretty hard, too!  My other son did this too, but to a lesser degree.
    Our pediatrician said not to worry, as they wouldn't hit their heads
    hard enough to hurt themselves.  Maybe it's their way of reacting to
    frustration!  I'm not sure, but I do know that my oldest son stopped
    doing it after only a couple of months, and my other son seems to be
    doing it less and less.   I'm sure it's just a phase!  
    
    Lila
    

	My brother used to bite his hand when he got frustrated
	or didn't get his way.  The first few times he did it, everyone
	reacted.  So, to him, it was almost a form of rebellion
	(you say no, I bite my hand, take THAT! ;-) )

	It was apparent one day when he got no reaction, looked up at his mother
		and said, "No bite hand?!"

	Karen